OnePlus sees this as a way for ‘Nord’ to grow in the mid-range segment. So, OnePlus may do with Nord what OPPO already did with Realme, Vivo with IQOO, and Xiaomi with POCO.
‘Nord’ may separate itself from OnePlus, and become an independent brand
If the report is to be believed, ‘Nord’ will be treated as a standalone company. Not only will it include its own branding, but it will also have its stores, and even a separate team from OnePlus. So, the OnePlus brand may be completely separate from Nord. It may either use ‘Nord by OnePlus’ branding, or ditch the ‘OnePlus’ brand completely. OnePlus may not be mentioned in any capacity on Nord products. That is more or less what we’ve seen with many other sub-brands in the market. There are several possibilities That’s not all that the source said, though. It is also stated that Nord will be looking to strengthen its offline presence. It will focus on “offline channels” to do that, as it already has strong partnerships with third-party stores and authorized sellers. OnePlus released a number of ‘Nord’ phones this year, including the Nord CE 2, Nord CE 2 Lite, and the Nord 2T. This brand is not all about phones, though. We’ve seen a Nord-branded pair of truly wireless earbuds as well, and we can likely expect more such products.
The ‘Nord’ portfolio will likely grow really fast if that end up happening
If ‘Nord’ does become an independent brand, we’ll likely see their portfolio grow really fast. The company may focus on smartwatches, smart bands, power banks, some new audio products, and more. Now, the source only says that it received this info from its “sources”, so this does not guarantee anything at this point. If this is happening, we’ll likely hear more info in the near future.